Automatic and selective context-based gating of a speech-output function of an electronic digital assistant

ABSTRACT

A process at an electronic computing device (device) for automatic and selective context-based gating of an electronic digital assistant speech-output function includes detecting, via a sensor communicatively coupled to the device or via a notification received at the device, an event associated with a need to reduce a cognitive load on the user. Responsively, temporarily gating a portion of an electronic digital assistant speech-output function to prevent reproduction to the user of one or more first speech-output events generated during a first period of time associated with the event. Subsequently, and after detecting that the event has ended, ending the temporary gating to allow reproduction of one or more second speech-output events generated during a second period of time after the event has ended.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Tablets, laptops, phones (e.g., cellular or satellite), mobile(vehicular) or portable (personal) two-way radios, and othercommunication devices are now in common use by users, such as firstresponders (including firemen, police officers, and paramedics, amongothers), and provide such users and others with instant access toincreasingly valuable additional information and resources such asvehicle histories, arrest records, outstanding warrants, healthinformation, real-time traffic or other situational status information,and any other information that may aid the user in making a moreinformed determination of an action to take or how to resolve asituation, among other possibilities.

Many such communication devices further comprise, or provide access to,electronic digital assistants (or sometimes referenced as “virtualpartners”) that may provide the user thereof with valuable informationin an automated (e.g., without further user input) or semi-automated(e.g., with some further user input) fashion. The valuable informationprovided to the user may be based on explicit requests for suchinformation posed by the user via an input (e.g., such as a parsednatural language input or an electronic touch interface manipulationassociated with an explicit request) in which the electronic digitalassistant may reactively provide such requested valuable information, ormay be based on some other set of one or more context or triggers inwhich the electronic digital assistant may proactively provide suchvaluable information to the user absent any explicit request from theuser.

As some existing examples, electronic digital assistants such as Siriprovided by Apple, Inc.® and Google Now provided by Google, Inc.®, aresoftware applications running on underlying electronic hardware that arecapable of understanding natural language, and may complete electronictasks in response to user voice inputs, among other additional oralternative types of inputs. These electronic digital assistants mayperform such tasks as taking and storing voice dictation for futurereference and retrieval, reading a received text message or an e-mailmessage aloud, generating a text message or e-mail message reply,looking up requested phone numbers and initiating a phone call to arequested contact, generating calendar appointments and providingappointment reminders, warning users of nearby dangers such as trafficaccidents or environmental hazards, and providing many other types ofinformation in a reactive or proactive manner.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying figures, where like reference numerals refer toidentical or functionally similar elements throughout the separateviews, which together with the detailed description below areincorporated in and form part of the specification and serve to furtherillustrate various embodiments of concepts that include the claimedinvention, and to explain various principles and advantages of thoseembodiments.

FIG. 1 is a system diagram illustrating a system for operating anelectronic digital assistant, in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 2 is a device diagram showing a device structure of an electroniccomputing device for operating an electronic digital assistant, inaccordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 3 illustrates a flowchart setting forth process steps for operatingthe electronic digital assistant of FIGS. 1 and/or 2, in accordance withsome embodiments.

Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures areillustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily beendrawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements inthe figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help toimprove understanding of embodiments of the present invention.

The apparatus and method components have been represented whereappropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only thosespecific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments ofthe present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with detailsthat will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the arthaving the benefit of the description herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In many cases, the electronic digital assistant may perform a task,whether in a reactive or proactive manner, that results in an auditoryspeech output being generated by a speech-output function and providedto and/or reproduced to a user via an output transducer of his or hercommunication device. However, problems exist in that (i) someenvironments and/or contexts in which the user may operate his or hercommunication device are not amenable to an electronic digital assistantprovided speech-output function, (ii) the speech-output function mayinterfere with an operation or task the user is attempting to complete,or (iii) the user's cognitive load may already be above a threshold suchthat the speech-output function would not aid the user's currentoperation or task, among other possibilities. For example, a policeofficer currently operating a covert task or involved in a fire fightmay not wish his or her electronic digital assistant to remind him orher about an upcoming meeting at the precinct via a speech-outputfunction at the user's mobile or portable communications device.Additionally or alternatively, a retail employee addressing an iratecustomer may not wish his or her electronic digital assistantspeech-output function to remind him or her to pick up returnedmerchandise for re-shelving while the employee is with the customer.

Thus, there exists a need for an improved technical method, device, andsystem for an electronic digital assistant computing device forautomatic and selective context-based gating of an electronic digitalassistant speech-output function.

In one embodiment a process at an electronic computing device forautomatic and selective context-based gating of an electronic digitalassistant speech-output function includes: detecting, by an electroniccomputing device associated with a user and via one or more sensorscommunicatively coupled to the electronic computing device or via anotification received at the electronic computing device from anothercomputing device, an event associated with a need to reduce a cognitiveload on the user; responsive to detecting the event, temporarily gating,by the electronic computing device, a portion of an electronic digitalassistant speech-output function to prevent reproduction to the user ofone or more first speech-output events generated during a first periodof time associated with the event; and subsequently, and afterdetecting, by the electronic computing device associated with the userthat the event has ended, ending, by the electronic computing device,the temporary gating of the portion of the electronic digital assistantspeech-output function to allow reproduction of one or more secondspeech-output events generated during a second period of time after theevent has ended.

In a further embodiment an electronic computing device associated with auser implementing an electronic digital assistant for selectivecontext-based gating of a speech-output function includes: a memorystoring non-transitory computer-readable instructions; a transceiver;and one or more processors configured to, in response to executing thenon-transitory computer-readable instructions, perform a first set offunctions comprising: detect, via one or more sensors communicativelycoupled to the electronic computing device or via a notificationreceived at the electronic computing device from another computingdevice via the transceiver, an event associated with a need to reduce acognitive load on the user; responsive to detecting the event,temporarily gate a portion of an electronic digital assistantspeech-output function to prevent reproduction to the user of one ormore first speech-output events generated during a first period of timeassociated with the event; and subsequently, and after detecting thatthe event has ended, end the temporary gating of the portion of theelectronic digital assistant speech-output function to allowreproduction of one or more second speech-output events generated duringa second period of time after the event has ended.

Each of the above-mentioned embodiments will be discussed in more detailbelow, starting with example communication system and devicearchitectures of the system in which the embodiments may be practiced,followed by an illustration of processing steps for achieving themethod, device, and system for an electronic digital assistant. Furtheradvantages and features consistent with this disclosure will be setforth in the following detailed description, with reference to thefigures.

1. Communication System and Device Structures

-   a. Communication System Structure

Referring now to the drawings, and in particular FIG. 1, a communicationsystem diagram illustrates a system 100 of devices including a first setof devices that a user 102 (illustrated in FIG. 1 as a first responderpolice officer) may wear, such as a primary battery-powered portableradio 104 used for narrowband and/or broadband direct-mode orinfrastructure communications, a battery-powered radio speakermicrophone (RSM) video capture device 106, a laptop 114 having anintegrated video camera and used for data applications such as incidentsupport applications, smart glasses 116 (e.g., which may be virtualreality, augmented reality, or mixed reality glasses), sensor-enabledholster 118, and/or biometric sensor wristband 120. Although FIG. 1illustrates only a single user 102 with a respective first set ofdevices, in other embodiments, the single user 102 may includeadditional sets of same or similar devices, and additional users may bepresent with respective additional sets of same or similar devices(wherein the single user 102 and the additional users may form atalkgroup of related users).

System 100 may also include a vehicle 132 associated with the user 102having an integrated mobile communication device 133, an associatedvehicular video camera 134, and a coupled vehicular transceiver 136.Although FIG. 1 illustrates only a single vehicle 132 with a singlemobile communication device 133, respective single vehicular videocamera 134 and/or microphone 135, single coupled vehicular transceiver136, and single speaker 137, in other embodiments, the vehicle 132 mayinclude additional same or similar mobile communication devices, videocameras, microphones, speakers, and/or transceivers, and additionalvehicles may be present with respective additional sets of mobilecommunication devices, video cameras, speakers, microphones, and/ortransceivers.

Each of the portable radio 104, RSM video capture device 106, laptop114, and vehicular mobile communication device 133 may be capable ofdirectly wirelessly communicating via direct-mode wireless link(s) 142,and/or may be capable of wirelessly communicating via a wirelessinfrastructure radio access network (RAN) 152 over respective wirelesslink(s) 140, 144 and via corresponding transceiver circuits. Thesedevices may be referred to as communication devices and are configuredto receive inputs associated with the user 102 and/or provide outputs tothe user 102 in addition to communicating information to and from othercommunication devices and the infrastructure RAN 152.

The portable radio 104, in particular, may be any communication deviceused for infrastructure RAN or direct-mode media (e.g., voice, audio,video, etc.) communication via a long-range wireless transmitter and/ortransceiver that has a transmitter transmit range on the order of miles,e.g., 0.5-50 miles, or 3-20 miles (i.e., long-range in comparison to ashort-range transmitter such as a Bluetooth, Zigbee, or NFC transmitter)with other communication devices and/or the infrastructure RAN 152. Thelong-range transmitter may implement a direct-mode, conventional, ortrunked land mobile radio (LMR) standard or protocol such as EuropeanTelecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) Digital Mobile Radio(DMR), a Project 25 (P25) standard defined by the Association of PublicSafety Communications Officials International (APCO), TerrestrialTrunked Radio (TETRA), or other LMR radio protocols or standards. Inother embodiments, the long range transmitter may implement a Long TermEvolution (LTE), LTE-Advance, or 5G protocol including multimediabroadcast multicast services (MBMS) or single site point-to-multipoint(SC-PTM) over which an open mobile alliance (OMA) push to talk (PTT)over cellular (OMA-PoC), a voice over IP (VoIP), an LTE Direct or LTEDevice to Device, or a PTT over IP (PoW) application may be implemented.In still further embodiments, the long range transmitter may implement aWi-Fi protocol perhaps in accordance with an IEEE 802.11 standard (e.g.,802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g) or a WiMAX protocol perhaps operating inaccordance with an IEEE 802.16 standard.

In the example of FIG. 1, the portable radio 104 may form the hub ofcommunication connectivity for the user 102, through which otheraccessory devices, such as a biometric sensor (for example, thebiometric sensor wristband 120), an activity tracker, a weapon statussensor (for example, the sensor-enabled holster 118), a heads-up-display(for example, the smart glasses 116), the RSM video capture device 106,and/or the laptop 114 may communicatively couple.

In order to communicate with and exchange video, audio, and other mediaand communications with the RSM video capture device 106, laptop 114,and/or smart glasses 116, the portable radio 104 may contain one or morephysical electronic ports (such as a USB port, an Ethernet port, anaudio jack, etc.) for direct electronic coupling with the RSM videocapture device 106, laptop 114, and/or smart glasses 116. In someembodiments, the portable radio 104 may contain a short-rangetransmitter (i.e., short-range in comparison to the long-rangetransmitter such as a LMR or broadband transmitter) and/or transceiverfor wirelessly coupling with the RSM video capture device 106, laptop114, and/or smart glasses 116. The short-range transmitter may be aBluetooth, Zigbee, or NFC transmitter having a transmit range on theorder of 0.01-100 meters, or 0.1-10 meters. In other embodiments, theRSM video capture device 106, the laptop 114, and/or the smart glasses116 may contain their own long-range transceivers and may communicatewith one another and/or with the infrastructure RAN 152 or vehiculartransceiver 136 directly without passing through portable radio 104.

The RSM video capture device 106 provides voice functionality featuressimilar to a traditional RSM, including one or more of acting as aremote microphone that is closer to the user's 102 mouth, providing aremote speaker allowing playback of audio closer to the user's 102 ear,and including a PTT switch or other type of PTT input. The voice and/oraudio recorded at the remote microphone may be provided to the portableradio 104 for storage and/or analysis or for further transmission toother mobile communication devices or the infrastructure RAN 152, or maybe directly transmitted by the RSM video capture device 106 to othercommunication devices or to the infrastructure RAN 152. The voice and/oraudio played back at the remote speaker may be received from theportable radio 104 or received directly from one or more othercommunication devices or the infrastructure RAN 152. The RSM videocapture device 106 may include a separate physical PTT switch 108 thatfunctions, in cooperation with the portable radio 104 or on its own, tomaintain the portable radio 104 and/or RSM video capture device 106 in amonitor only mode, and which switches the device(s) to a transmit-onlymode (for half-duplex devices) or transmit and receive mode (forfull-duplex devices) upon depression or activation of the PTT switch108. The portable radio 104 and/or RSM video capture device 106 may formpart of a group communications architecture that allows a singlecommunication device to communicate with one or more group members(i.e., talkgroup members, not shown in FIG. 1) associated with aparticular group of devices at a same time.

Additional features may be provided at the RSM video capture device 106as well. For example, a display screen 110 may be provided fordisplaying images, video, and/or text to the user 102 or to someoneelse. The display screen 110 may be, for example, a liquid crystaldisplay (LCD) screen or an organic light emitting display (OLED) displayscreen. In some embodiments, a touch sensitive input interface may beincorporated into the display screen 110 as well, allowing the user 102to interact with content provided on the display screen 110. A soft PTTinput may also be provided, for example, via such a touch interface.

A video camera 112 may also be provided at the RSM video capture device106, integrating an ability to capture images and/or video and store thecaptured image data (for further analysis) or transmit the capturedimage data as an image or video stream to the portable radio 104 and/orto other communication devices or to the infrastructure RAN 152directly. The video camera 112 and RSM remote microphone may be used,for example, for capturing audio and/or video of a field-of-viewassociated with the user, perhaps including a suspect and the suspect'ssurroundings, storing the captured image and/or audio data for furtheranalysis or transmitting the captured audio and/or video data as anaudio and/or video stream to the portable radio 104 and/or to othercommunication devices or to the infrastructure RAN 152 directly forfurther analysis. An RSM remote microphone of the RSM video capturedevice 106 may be an omni-directional or unidirectional microphone orarray of omni-directional or unidirectional microphones that may becapable of identifying a direction from which a captured sound emanated.

In some embodiments, the RSM video capture device 106 may be replacedwith a more limited body worn camera that may include the video camera112 and/or microphone noted above for capturing audio and/or video, butmay forego one or more of the features noted above that transform thebody worn camera into a more full featured RSM, such as the separatephysical PTT switch 108 and the display screen 110, remote microphonefunctionality for voice communications in cooperation with portableradio 104, and remote speaker.

The laptop 114, in particular, may be any wireless communication deviceused for infrastructure RAN or direct-mode media communication via along-range or short-range wireless transmitter with other communicationdevices and/or the infrastructure RAN 152. The laptop 114 includes adisplay screen for displaying a user interface to an operating systemand one or more applications running on the operating system, such as abroadband PTT communications application, a web browser application, avehicle history database application, a workflow application, a forms orreporting tool application, an arrest record database application, anoutstanding warrant database application, a mapping and/or navigationapplication, a health information database application, and/or othertypes of applications that may require user interaction to operate. Thelaptop 114 display screen may be, for example, an LCD screen or an OLEDdisplay screen. In some embodiments, a touch sensitive input interfacemay be incorporated into the display screen as well, allowing the user102 to interact with content provided on the display screen. A soft PTTinput may also be provided, for example, via such a touch interface.

Front and/or rear-facing video cameras may also be provided at thelaptop 114, integrating an ability to capture video and/or audio of theuser 102 and the user's 102 surroundings, perhaps including afield-of-view of the user 102 and/or a suspect (or potential suspect)and the suspect's surroundings, and store and/or otherwise process thecaptured video and/or audio for further analysis or transmit thecaptured video and/or audio as a video and/or audio stream to theportable radio 104, other communication devices, and/or theinfrastructure RAN 152 for further analysis.

An in-ear or over-the ear earpiece or headphone 115 may be present forproviding audio to the user in a private fashion that is not accessibleto other users nearby the user 102. The earpiece or headphone 115 may bewiredly or wirelessly communicatively coupled to one or both of the RSM106 and the portable radio 104, which may be configured to provide audioreceived from the RAN 152 and/or from other users to the user 102 basedon a manual configuration of the RSM 106 or the portable radio 104, orbased on some automatic routing mechanism at the one of the RSM 106 andthe portable radio 104 that may route all audio to the earpiece orheadphone 115 whenever it is detected as connected to the one of the RSM106 and the portable radio 104, or may selectively route audio receivedat the one of the RSM 106 and the portable radio 104 to the earpiece orheadphone 115 based on various contextual parameters, such as a contentof the received audio, an identity of who sent the received audio, acovert status of the user 102, an incident status of the user 102, adetermination of nearby users associated with the user 102, or someother contextual parameter.

The smart glasses 116 may include a digital imaging device, anelectronic processor, a short-range and/or long-range transceiverdevice, and/or a projecting device. The smart glasses 116 may maintain abi-directional connection with the portable radio 104 and provide analways-on or on-demand video feed pointed in a direction of the user's102 gaze via the digital imaging device, and/or may provide a personaldisplay via the projection device integrated into the smart glasses 116for displaying information such as text, images, or video received fromthe portable radio 104 or directly from the infrastructure RAN 152. Insome embodiments, the smart glasses 116 may include its own long-rangetransceiver and may communicate with other communication devices and/orwith the infrastructure RAN 152 or vehicular transceiver 136 directlywithout passing through portable radio 104. In other embodiments, anadditional user interface mechanism such as a touch interface or gesturedetection mechanism may be provided at the smart glasses 116 that allowsthe user 102 to interact with the display elements displayed on thesmart glasses 116 or projected into the user's 102 eyes, or to modifyoperation of the digital imaging device. In still other embodiments, adisplay and input interface at the portable radio 104 may be providedfor interacting with smart glasses 116 content and modifying operationof the digital imaging device, among other possibilities.

The smart glasses 116 may provide a virtual reality interface in which acomputer-simulated reality electronically replicates an environment withwhich the user 102 may interact. In some embodiments, the smart glasses116 may provide an augmented reality interface in which a direct orindirect view of real-world environments in which the user is currentlydisposed are augmented (i.e., supplemented, by additionalcomputer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, images, graphics,GPS data, or other information). In still other embodiments, the smartglasses 116 may provide a mixed reality interface in whichelectronically generated objects are inserted in a direct or indirectview of real-world environments in a manner such that they may co-existand interact in real time with the real-world environment and real worldobjects.

The sensor-enabled holster 118 may be an active (powered) or passive(non-powered) sensor that maintains and/or provides state informationregarding a weapon or other item normally disposed within the user's 102sensor-enabled holster 118. The sensor-enabled holster 118 may detect achange in state (presence to absence) and/or an action (removal)relative to the weapon normally disposed within the sensor-enabledholster 118. The detected change in state and/or action may be reportedto the portable radio 104 via its short-range transceiver. In someembodiments, the sensor-enabled holster 118 may also detect whether thefirst responder's hand is resting on the weapon even if it has not yetbeen removed from the holster and provide such information to portableradio 104. Other possibilities exist as well.

The biometric sensor wristband 120 may be an electronic device fortracking an activity of the user 102 or a health status of the user 102,and may include one or more movement sensors (such as an accelerometer,magnetometer, and/or gyroscope) that may periodically or intermittentlyprovide to the portable radio 104 indications of orientation, direction,steps, acceleration, and/or speed, and indications of health such as oneor more of a captured heart rate, a captured breathing rate, and acaptured body temperature of the user 102, perhaps accompanying otherinformation. In some embodiments, the biometric sensor wristband 120 mayinclude its own long-range transceiver and may communicate with othercommunication devices and/or with the infrastructure RAN 152 orvehicular transceiver 136 directly without passing through portableradio 104.

An accelerometer is a device that measures acceleration. Single andmulti-axis models are available to detect magnitude and direction of theacceleration as a vector quantity, and may be used to sense orientation,acceleration, vibration shock, and falling. A gyroscope is a device formeasuring or maintaining orientation, based on the principles ofconservation of angular momentum. One type of gyroscope, amicroelectromechanical system (MEMS) based gyroscope, useslithographically constructed versions of one or more of a tuning fork, avibrating wheel, or resonant solid to measure orientation. Other typesof gyroscopes could be used as well. A magnetometer is a device used tomeasure the strength and/or direction of the magnetic field in thevicinity of the device, and may be used to determine a direction inwhich a person or device is facing.

The heart rate sensor may use electrical contacts with the skin tomonitor an electrocardiography (EKG) signal of its wearer, or may useinfrared light and imaging device to optically detect a pulse rate ofits wearer, among other possibilities.

A breathing rate sensor may be integrated within the sensor wristband120 itself, or disposed separately and communicate with the sensorwristband 120 via a short range wireless or wired connection. Thebreathing rate sensor may include use of a differential capacitivecircuits or capacitive transducers to measure chest displacement andthus breathing rates. In other embodiments, a breathing sensor maymonitor a periodicity of mouth and/or nose-exhaled air (e.g., using ahumidity sensor, temperature sensor, capnometer or spirometer) to detecta respiration rate. Other possibilities exist as well.

A body temperature sensor may include an electronic digital or analogsensor that measures a skin temperature using, for example, a negativetemperature coefficient (NTC) thermistor or a resistive temperaturedetector (RTD), may include an infrared thermal scanner module, and/ormay include an ingestible temperature sensor that transmits aninternally measured body temperature via a short range wirelessconnection, among other possibilities.

Although the biometric sensor wristband 120 is shown in FIG. 1 as abracelet worn around the wrist, in other examples, the biometric sensorwristband 120 may additionally and/or alternatively be worn aroundanother part of the body, or may take a different physical formincluding an earring, a finger ring, a necklace, a glove, a belt, orsome other type of wearable, ingestible, or insertable form factor.

The portable radio 104, RSM video capture device 106, laptop 114, smartglasses 116, sensor-enabled holster 118, and/or biometric sensorwristband 120 may form a personal area network (PAN) via correspondingshort-range PAN transceivers, which may be based on a Bluetooth, Zigbee,or other short-range wireless protocol having a transmission range onthe order of meters, tens of meters, or hundreds of meters.

The portable radio 104 and/or RSM video capture device 106 (or any otherelectronic device in FIG. 1, for that matter) may each include alocation determination device integrated with or separately disposed inthe portable radio 104 and/or RSM 106 and/or in respective receivers,transmitters, or transceivers of the portable radio 104 and RSM 106 fordetermining a location of the portable radio 104 and RSM 106. Thelocation determination device may be, for example, a global positioningsystem (GPS) receiver or wireless triangulation logic using a wirelessreceiver or transceiver and a plurality of wireless signals received atthe wireless receiver or transceiver from different locations, amongother possibilities. The location determination device may also includean orientation sensor for determining an orientation that the device isfacing. Each orientation sensor may include a gyroscope and/or amagnetometer. Other types of orientation sensors could be used as well.The location may then be stored locally or transmitted via thetransmitter or transceiver to other communication devices and/or to theinfrastructure RAN 152.

The vehicle 132 associated with the user 102 may include the mobilecommunication device 133, the vehicular video camera 134 and/ormicrophone 135, and the vehicular transceiver 136, all of which may becoupled to one another via a wired and/or wireless vehicle area network(VAN), perhaps along with other sensors physically or communicativelycoupled to the vehicle 132. The vehicular transceiver 136 may include along-range transceiver for directly wirelessly communicating withcommunication devices such as the portable radio 104, the RSM 106, andthe laptop 114 via wireless link(s) 142 and/or for wirelesslycommunicating with the RAN 152 via wireless link(s) 144. The vehiculartransceiver 136 may further include a short-range wireless transceiveror wired transceiver for communicatively coupling between the mobilecommunication device 133 and/or the vehicular video camera 134 in theVAN. The mobile communication device 133 may, in some embodiments,include the vehicular transceiver 136 and/or the vehicular video camera134 integrated therewith, and may operate to store and/or process videoand/or audio produced by the video camera 134 and/or transmit thecaptured video and/or audio as a video and/or audio stream to theportable radio 104, other communication devices, and/or theinfrastructure RAN 152 for further analysis. The omni-directional orunidirectional microphone 135, or an array thereof, may be integrated inthe video camera 134 and/or at the vehicular computing device 133 (oradditionally or alternatively made available at a separate location ofthe vehicle 132) and communicably coupled to the vehicular computingdevice 133 and/or vehicular transceiver 136 for capturing audio andstoring, processing, and/or transmitting the audio in a same or similarmanner as set forth above with respect to the RSM 106.

Although FIG. 1 illustrates the vehicular video camera 134 andmicrophone 135 as being placed inside the vehicle 132, in otherembodiments, one or both of the vehicular video camera 134 andmicrophone 135 may be placed at visible or hidden locations outside ofthe vehicle 132, such as within a vehicular grill portion or bumperportion, or on a roof portion, of the vehicle 132. Further, althoughFIG. 1 illustrates the single speaker 137 as being placed inside of thevehicle 132 and coupled to the vehicular computing device 133, in otherembodiments, multiple speakers may be provided inside and/or outside ofthe vehicle 132 (all addressed simultaneously or individuallyaddressable for outputting separate audio streams), or the singlespeaker 137 may be placed outside of the vehicle and function as a PAspeaker, among other possibilities.

The vehicle 132 may be a human-operable vehicle, or may be aself-driving vehicle operable under control of mobile communicationdevice 133 perhaps in cooperation with video camera 134 (which mayinclude a visible-light camera, an infrared camera, a time-of-flightdepth camera, and/or a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) device).Command information and/or status information such as location and speedmay be exchanged with the self-driving vehicle via the VAN and/or thePAN (when the PAN is in range of the VAN or via the VAN's infrastructureRAN link).

The vehicle 132 and/or transceiver 136, similar to the portable radio104 and/or respective receivers, transmitters, or transceivers thereof,may include a location (and/or orientation) determination deviceintegrated with or separately disposed in the mobile communicationdevice 133 and/or transceiver 136 for determining (and storing and/ortransmitting) a location (and/or orientation) of the vehicle 132.

In some embodiments, instead of a vehicle 132, a land, air, orwater-based drone with the same or similar audio and/or video andcommunications capabilities and the same or similar self-navigatingcapabilities as set forth above may be disposed, and may similarlycommunicate with the user's 102 PAN and/or with the infrastructure RAN152 to support the user 102 in the field.

The VAN may communicatively couple with the PAN disclosed above when theVAN and the PAN come within wireless transmission range of one another,perhaps after an authentication takes place there between. In someembodiments, one of the VAN and the PAN may provide infrastructurecommunications to the other, depending on the situation and the types ofdevices in the VAN and/or PAN and may provide interoperability andcommunication links between devices (such as video cameras and sensors)within the VAN and PAN.

Although the RSM 106, the laptop 114, and the vehicle 132 areillustrated in FIG. 1 as providing example video cameras and/ormicrophones for use in capturing audio and/or video streams, other typesof cameras and/or microphones could be used as well, including but notlimited to, fixed or pivotable video cameras secured to lamp posts,automated teller machine (ATM) video cameras, other types of body worncameras such as head-mounted cameras, other types of vehicular camerassuch as roof-mounted cameras, or other types of audio and/or videorecording devices accessible via a wired or wireless network interfacesame or similar to that disclosed herein.

Infrastructure RAN 152 is a radio access network that provides for radiocommunication links to be arranged within the network between aplurality of user terminals. Such user terminals may be portable,mobile, or stationary and may include any one or more of thecommunication devices illustrated in FIG. 1, among other possibilities.At least one other terminal, e.g. used in conjunction with thecommunication devices, may be a fixed terminal, e.g. a base station,eNodeB, repeater, and/or access point. Such a RAN typically includes asystem infrastructure that generally includes a network of various fixedterminals, which are in direct radio communication with thecommunication devices. Each of the fixed terminals operating in the RAN152 may have one or more transceivers which may, for example, servecommunication devices in a given region or area, known as a ‘cell’ or‘site’, by radio frequency (RF) communication. The communication devicesthat are in direct communication with a particular fixed terminal aresaid to be served by the fixed terminal. In one example, all radiocommunications to and from each communication device within the RAN 152are made via respective serving fixed terminals. Sites of neighboringfixed terminals may be offset from one another and may providecorresponding non-overlapping or partially or fully overlapping RFcoverage areas.

Infrastructure RAN 152 may operate according to an industry standardwireless access technology such as, for example, an LTE, LTE-Advance, or5G technology over which an OMA-PoC, a VoIP, an LTE Direct or LTE Deviceto Device, or a PoIP application may be implemented. Additionally oralternatively, infrastructure RAN 152 may implement a WLAN technologysuch as Wi-Fi perhaps operating in accordance with an IEEE 802.11standard (e.g., 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g) or such as a WiMAX perhapsoperating in accordance with an IEEE 802.16 standard.

Infrastructure RAN 152 may additionally or alternatively operateaccording to an industry standard LMR wireless access technology suchas, for example, the P25 standard defined by the APCO, the TETRAstandard defined by the ETSI, the dPMR standard also defined by theETSI, or the DMR standard also defined by the ETSI. Because thesesystems generally provide lower throughput than the broadband systems,they are sometimes designated as narrowband RANs.

Communications in accordance with any one or more of these protocols orstandards, or other protocols or standards, may take place over physicalchannels in accordance with one or more of a TDMA (time divisionmultiple access), FDMA (frequency divisional multiple access), OFDMA(orthogonal frequency division multiplexing access), or CDMA (codedivision multiple access) technique.

OMA-PoC, in particular and as one example of an infrastructure broadbandwireless application, enables familiar PTT and “instant on” features oftraditional half duplex communication devices, but uses communicationdevices operating over modern broadband telecommunications networks.Using OMA-PoC, wireless communication devices such as mobile telephonesand notebook computers can function as PTT half-duplex communicationdevices for transmitting and receiving. Other types of PTT models andmultimedia call models (MMCMs) are also available.

Floor control in an OMA-PoC session is generally maintained by a PTTserver that controls communications between two or more wirelesscommunication devices. When a user of one of the communication deviceskeys a PTT button, a request for permission to speak in the OMA-PoCsession is transmitted from the user's communication device to the PTTserver using, for example, a real-time transport protocol (RTP) message.If no other users are currently speaking in the PoC session, anacceptance message is transmitted back to the user's communicationdevice and the user may then speak into a microphone of thecommunication device. Using standard compression/decompression (codec)techniques, the user's voice is digitized and transmitted using discreteauditory data packets (e.g., together which form an auditory data streamover time), such as according to RTP and internet protocols (IP), to thePTT server. The PTT server then transmits the auditory data packets toother users of the PoC session (e.g., to other communication devices inthe group of communication devices or talkgroup to which the user issubscribed), using for example, one or more of a unicast, point tomultipoint, or broadcast communication technique.

Infrastructure narrowband LMR wireless systems, on the other hand,operate in either a conventional or trunked configuration. In eitherconfiguration, a plurality of communication devices is partitioned intoseparate groups of communication devices. In a conventional narrowbandsystem, each communication device in a group is selected to a particularradio channel (frequency or frequency & time slot) for communicationsassociated with that communication device's group. Thus, each group isserved by one channel, and multiple groups may share the same singlefrequency or frequency & time slot (in which case, in some embodiments,group IDs may be present in the group data to distinguish betweengroups).

In contrast, a trunked radio system and its communication devices use apool of traffic channels for virtually an unlimited number of groups ofcommunication devices (and which may also be referred to herein astalkgroups). Thus, all groups are served by all channels. The trunkedradio system works to take advantage of the probability that not allgroups need a traffic channel for communication at the same time. When amember of a group requests a call on a control or rest channel on whichall of the communication devices at a site idle awaiting new callnotifications, in one embodiment, a call controller assigns a separatetraffic channel for the requested group call, and all group members movefrom the assigned control or rest channel to the assigned trafficchannel for the group call. In another embodiment, when a member of agroup requests a call on a control or rest channel, the call controllermay convert the control or rest channel on which the communicationdevices were idling to a traffic channel for the call, and instruct allcommunication devices that are not participating in the new call to moveto a newly assigned control or rest channel selected from the pool ofavailable channels. With a given number of channels, a much greaternumber of groups may be accommodated in a trunked radio system ascompared with a conventional radio system.

Group calls may be made between wireless and/or wireline participants inaccordance with either a narrowband or a broadband protocol or standard.Group members for group calls may be statically or dynamically defined.That is, in a first example, a user or administrator working on behalfof the user may indicate to the switching and/or radio network (perhapsat a call controller, PTT server, zone controller, or mobile managemententity (MME), base station controller (BSC), mobile switching center(MSC), site controller, Push-to-Talk controller, or other networkdevice) a list of participants of a group at the time of the call or inadvance of the call. The group members (e.g., communication devices)could be provisioned in the network by the user or an agent, and thenprovided some form of group identity or identifier, for example. Then,at a future time, an originating user in a group may cause somesignaling to be transmitted indicating that he or she wishes toestablish a communication session (e.g., group call) with each of thepre-designated participants in the defined group. In another example,communication devices may dynamically affiliate with a group (and alsodisassociate with the group) perhaps based on user input, and theswitching and/or radio network may track group membership and route newgroup calls according to the current group membership.

In some instances, broadband and narrowband systems may be interfacedvia a middleware system that translates between a narrowband PTTstandard protocol (such as P25) and a broadband PTT standard protocol orapplication (such as OMA-PoC). Such intermediate middleware may includea middleware server for performing the translations and may be disposedin the cloud, disposed in a dedicated on-premises location for a clientwishing to use both technologies, or disposed at a public carriersupporting one or both technologies. For example, and with respect toFIG. 1, such a middleware server may be disposed in infrastructure RAN152 at infrastructure controller 156 or at a separate cloud computingcluster such as cloud compute cluster 162 communicably coupled tocontroller 156 via internet protocol (IP) network 160, among otherpossibilities.

The infrastructure RAN 152 is illustrated in FIG. 1 as providingcoverage for the portable radio 104, RSM video capture device 106,laptop 114, smart glasses 116, and/or vehicle transceiver 136 via asingle fixed terminal 154 coupled to a single infrastructure controller156 (e.g., a radio controller, call controller, PTT server, zonecontroller, MME, BSC, MSC, site controller, Push-to-Talk controller, orother network device) and including a dispatch console 158 operated by adispatcher. In other embodiments, additional fixed terminals andadditional controllers may be disposed to support a larger geographicfootprint and/or a larger number of mobile devices.

The infrastructure controller 156 illustrated in FIG. 1, or some otherback-end infrastructure device or combination of back-end infrastructuredevices existing on-premises or in the remote cloud compute cluster 162accessible via the IP network 160 (such as the Internet), mayadditionally or alternatively operate as a back-end electronic digitalassistant, a back-end audio and/or video processing device, and/or aremote cloud-based storage device consistent with the remainder of thisdisclosure.

The IP network 160 may comprise one or more routers, switches, LANs,WLANs, WANs, access points, or other network infrastructure, includingbut not limited to, the public Internet. The cloud compute cluster 162may be comprised of a plurality of computing devices, such as the oneset forth in FIG. 2, one or more of which may be executing none, all, ora portion of an electronic digital assistant service, sequentially or inparallel, across the one or more computing devices. The one or morecomputing devices comprising the cloud compute cluster 162 may begeographically co-located or may be separated by inches, meters, ormiles, and inter-connected via electronic and/or optical interconnects.Although not shown in FIG. 1, one or more proxy servers or loadbalancing servers may control which one or more computing devicesperform any part or all of the electronic digital assistant service.

Database(s) 164 may be accessible via IP network 160 and/or cloudcompute cluster 162, and may include databases such as a long-term videostorage database, a historical or forecasted weather database, anoffender database perhaps including facial recognition images to matchagainst, a cartographic database of streets and elevations, a trafficdatabase of historical or current traffic conditions, or other types ofdatabases. Databases 164 may further include all or a portion of thedatabases described herein as being provided at infrastructurecontroller 156. In some embodiments, the databases 164 may be maintainedby third parties (for example, the National Weather Service or aDepartment of Transportation, respectively). As shown in FIG. 1, thedatabases 164 are communicatively coupled with the infrastructure RAN152 to allow the communication devices (for example, the portable radio104, the RSM video capture device 106, the laptop 114, and the mobilecommunication device 133) to communicate with and retrieve data from thedatabases 164 via infrastructure controller 156 and IP network 160. Insome embodiments, the databases 164 are commercial cloud-based storagedevices. In some embodiments, the databases 164 are housed on suitableon-premises database servers. The databases 164 of FIG. 1 are merelyexamples. In some embodiments, the system 100 additionally oralternatively includes other databases that store different information.In some embodiments, the databases 164 disclosed herein and/oradditional or other databases are integrated with, or internal to, theinfrastructure controller 156.

Finally, although FIG. 1 describes a communication system 100 generallyas a public safety communication system that includes a user 102generally described as a police officer and a vehicle 132 generallydescribed as a police car or cruiser, in other embodiments, thecommunication system 100 may additionally or alternatively be a retailcommunication system including a user 102 that may be an employee of aretailer and a vehicle 132 that may be a vehicle for use by the user 102in furtherance of the employee's retail duties (e.g., a shuttle orself-balancing scooter). In other embodiments, the communication system100 may additionally or alternatively be a warehouse communicationsystem including a user 102 that may be an employee of a warehouse and avehicle 132 that may be a vehicle for use by the user 102 in furtheranceof the employee's retail duties (e.g., a forklift). In still furtherembodiments, the communication system 100 may additionally oralternatively be a private security communication system including auser 102 that may be an employee of a private security company and avehicle 132 that may be a vehicle for use by the user 102 in furtheranceof the private security employee's duties (e.g., a private securityvehicle or motorcycle). In even further embodiments, the communicationsystem 100 may additionally or alternatively be a medical communicationsystem including a user 102 that may be a doctor or nurse of a hospitaland a vehicle 132 that may be a vehicle for use by the user 102 infurtherance of the doctor or nurse's duties (e.g., a medical gurney orambulance). In still another example embodiment, the communicationsystem 100 may additionally or alternatively be a heavy machinerycommunication system including a user 102 that may be a miner, driller,or extractor at a mine, oil field, or precious metal or gem field and avehicle 132 that may be a vehicle for use by the user 102 in furtheranceof the miner, driller, or extractor's duties (e.g., an excavator,bulldozer, crane, front loader). As one other example, the communicationsystem 100 may additionally or alternatively be a transportationlogistics communication system including a user 102 that may be a busdriver or semi-truck driver at a school or transportation company and avehicle 132 that may be a vehicle for use by the user 102 in furtheranceof the driver's duties. In the examples of a user 102 being other than apolice officer, certain sensors such as the weapon status sensordescribed above with respect to the police officer user may be replacedor supplemented with other types of sensors, such as one or more sensorsthat may detect whether a particular retail, warehouse, privatesecurity, heavy machinery operator, transportation driver, or other typeof user has equipment necessary to perform a particular assigned orto-be-assigned task, whether such equipment is in a workable orsufficient condition, or whether the equipment is sufficient for thearea or environment the user is in. Other possibilities and othervariations exist as well.

-   b. Device Structure

FIG. 2 sets forth a schematic diagram that illustrates a communicationdevice 200 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Thecommunication device 200 may be, for example, embodied in the portableradio 104, the RSM video capture device 106, the laptop 114, the mobilecommunication device 133, the infrastructure controller 156, thedispatch console 158, one or more computing devices in the cloud computecluster 162, or some other communication device not illustrated in FIG.1, and/or may be a distributed communication device across two or moreof the foregoing (or multiple of a same type of one of the foregoing)and linked via a wired and/or wireless communication link(s). In someembodiments, the communication device 200 (for example, the portableradio 104) may be communicatively coupled to other devices such as thesensor-enabled holster 118 as described above. In such embodiments, thecombination of the portable radio 104 and the sensor-enabled holster 118may be considered a single communication device 200.

While FIG. 2 represents the communication devices described above withrespect to FIG. 1, depending on the type of the communication device,the communication device 200 may include fewer or additional componentsin configurations different from that illustrated in FIG. 2. Forexample, in some embodiments, communication device 200 acting as theinfrastructure controller 156 may not include one or more of the screen205, input device 206, microphone 220, imaging device 221, and speaker222. As another example, in some embodiments, the communication device200 acting as the portable radio 104 or the RSM video capture device 106may further include a location determination device (for example, aglobal positioning system (GPS) receiver) as explained above. Othercombinations are possible as well.

As shown in FIG. 2, communication device 200 includes a communicationsunit 202 coupled to a common data and address bus 217 of a processingunit 203. The communication device 200 may also include one or moreinput devices (e.g., keypad, pointing device, touch-sensitive surface,etc.) 206 and an electronic display screen 205 (which, in someembodiments, may be a touch screen and thus also act as an input device206), each coupled to be in communication with the processing unit 203.

The microphone 220 may be present for capturing audio from a user and/orother environmental or background audio that is further processed byprocessing unit 203 in accordance with the remainder of this disclosureand/or is transmitted as voice or audio stream data, or as acousticalenvironment indications, by communications unit 202 to other portableradios and/or other communication devices. The imaging device 221 mayprovide video (still or moving images) of an area in a field of view ofthe communication device 200 for further processing by the processingunit 203 and/or for further transmission by the communications unit 202.A speaker 222 may be present for reproducing audio that is decoded fromvoice or audio streams of calls received via the communications unit 202from other portable radios, from digital audio stored at thecommunication device 200, from other ad-hoc or direct mode devices,and/or from an infrastructure RAN device, or may playback alert tones orother types of pre-recorded audio.

The processing unit 203 may include a code Read Only Memory (ROM) 212coupled to the common data and address bus 217 for storing data forinitializing system components. The processing unit 203 may furtherinclude an electronic processor 213 (for example, a microprocessor oranother electronic device) coupled, by the common data and address bus217, to a Random Access Memory (RAM) 204 and a static memory 216.

The communications unit 202 may include one or more wired and/orwireless input/output (I/O) interfaces 209 that are configurable tocommunicate with other communication devices, such as the portable radio104, the laptop 114, the wireless RAN 152, and/or the mobilecommunication device 133.

For example, the communications unit 202 may include one or morewireless transceivers 208, such as a DMR transceiver, a P25 transceiver,a Bluetooth transceiver, a Wi-Fi transceiver perhaps operating inaccordance with an IEEE 802.11 standard (e.g., 802.11a, 802.11b,802.11g), an LTE transceiver, a WiMAX transceiver perhaps operating inaccordance with an IEEE 802.16 standard, and/or another similar type ofwireless transceiver configurable to communicate via a wireless radionetwork.

The communications unit 202 may additionally or alternatively includeone or more wireline transceivers 208, such as an Ethernet transceiver,a USB transceiver, or similar transceiver configurable to communicatevia a twisted pair wire, a coaxial cable, a fiber-optic link, or asimilar physical connection to a wireline network. The transceiver 208is also coupled to a combined modulator/demodulator 210.

The electronic processor 213 has ports for coupling to the displayscreen 205, the input device 206, the microphone 220, the imaging device221, and/or the speaker 222. Static memory 216 may store operating code225 for the electronic processor 213 that, when executed, performs oneor more of the steps set forth in FIG. 3 and accompanying text.

In some embodiments, static memory 216 may also store, permanently ortemporarily, a speech-output function gating mapping that mapsparticular sensors, particular sensor information, and/or particularnotification contents to a need to reduce a cognitive load on the user,or may store, permanently or temporarily, a neural network model whichmay determine, based on past training, that the identity of the sensor,the sensor information, and/or particular notification contents areassociated with a need to reduce a cognitive load on the user. Includedin the mapping may also be a level of gating to be applied given thesensor identity, sensor information contents, and/or notificationcontents, ranging from a gating of subsequently generated low and/ormid-priority speech-output events generated by the electronic computingdevice to a complete gating of all speech-output events generated by theelectronic computing device. In some embodiments, one or moreintermediary mappings may also be provided, such as a first mapping thatmaps particular single or sets of sensor(s), particular sensorinformation(s), and/or particular notification content(s) to aparticular context or situation, and a second mapping that mapsparticular contexts or situations to a need to reduce a cognitive loadon the user (or may store a neural network model which may perform asame function as either first or second mappings, or both).

Alternatively, a stored inverse mapping may map the foregoing mentionedparticular sensors, particular sensor information, and/or particularnotification contents to a corresponding set of one or more (or all)speech-output functions to not gate during a time period associated withthe event in which, by default, all speech-output functions are gated(e.g., ranging from a not gating of subsequently generated high and/ormid-priority speech-output functions to a not gating of no speech-outputevents). Alternatively, stored neural network model may perform a sameor similar function as the inverse mapping.

The stored mapping or inverse mapping, or corresponding neural networkoutput, may additionally or alternatively recite what to do withsubsequently generated (but gated) speech-output events during the timeperiod associated with the event (e.g., across all sensors, sensorinformation contents, notification contents; across all contexts orsituations implicated by the sensor identity, sensor informationcontents, and/or notification contents; on a sensor by sensor basis, ona sensor information contents by sensor information contents basis, oron a notification contents by notification contents basis), includingbut not limited to discarding the generated speech-output events,translating the generated speech-output events to another communicationmedium (including redirecting the translated speech-output events toanother device), queuing the generated speech-output events (in atime-based order or priority-based order), or some combination of two ormore of the foregoing. The mapping may further additionally oralternatively recite what action to take when the event is detected tohave ended (again, across all events or an a per-sensor, per-sensorinformation, per-notification, per-context, or per-situation basis),including but not limited to generating a notification regarding pendingqueued (or re-directed) speech-output events, automatically playing backqueued speech-output events (in a time-generated or re-prioritizedorder), condensing queued speech-output events into a summarized formand playing back the summarized form of speech-output events, furtherdelaying re-enabling the gated speech-output function for an additionalperiod of time or until an occurrence of some other event, or somecombination of two or more of the foregoing.

The static memory 216 may comprise, for example, a hard-disk drive(HDD), an optical disk drive such as a compact disk (CD) drive ordigital versatile disk (DVD) drive, a solid state drive (SSD), a flashmemory drive, or a tape drive, and the like.

2. Processes for Automatic and Selective Context-Based Gating of anElectronic Digital Assistant Speech-Output Function

In some embodiments, an individual component and/or a combination ofindividual components of the system 100 may be referred to as anelectronic computing device that implements an electronic digitalassistant as mentioned above. For example, the electronic computingdevice may be a single electronic processor (for example, the electronicprocessor 213 of the portable radio 104). In other embodiments, theelectronic computing device includes multiple electronic processorsdistributed remotely from each other. For example, the electroniccomputing device may be implemented on a combination of at least two ofthe electronic processor 213 of the portable radio 104, the electronicprocessor 213 of the infrastructure controller 156, and the electronicprocessor 213 of a back-end cloud compute cluster 162 accessible via theIP network 160.

To use the electronic digital assistant implemented by the electroniccomputing device, the user 102 may, for example, provide an oral queryor statement that is received by the microphone 220 of the communicationdevice 200. The electronic computing device receives signalsrepresentative of the oral query or statement from the microphone 220and analyzes the signals to determine the content of the oral query orstatement. For example, the electronic computing device may include anatural language processing (NLP) engine configured to determine theintent and/or content of the oral query or statement. The electroniccomputing device may also be configured to determine a response to theoral query (for example, by retrieving stored data or by requesting datafrom a database such as one of the databases 164) and provide theresponse to an output device of the communication device 200 (forexample, one or more of the speaker 222 via a generated audio responseand the screen 205 via a generated text based response), and/or may beconfigured to determine some other action to take in light of thecontent of the oral query and/or statement. In other words, one or moreof the communication device 200, embodied in one or more of thecommunication devices of FIG. 1, such as the portable radio 104, theinfrastructure controller 156, and/or the cloud compute cluster 162, mayinclude an NLP engine to analyze oral queries and/or statements receivedby the microphone 220 of the communication device 200 and provideresponses to the oral queries and/or take other actions in response tothe oral statements.

Although an oral query and/or statement is described above, in someembodiments, the electronic computing device receives and responds toother types of queries and inputs. For example, the user 102 may submita text query to the electronic computing device by typing the text queryinto a hard keyboard input device 206 or a soft keyboard input providedon the screen 205 of the communication device 200. As another example,the user 102 may use the imaging device 221 to capture an image or videoof an area and press a hard or soft key to send the image or video tothe electronic computing device to, for example, allow the electroniccomputing device to identify an object in the image or video and providea response and/or take other actions. In still other examples, theelectronic computing device may have access to other databases such ascalendar or e-mail databases associated with the user 102, and may takean action as a function of some other asynchronous trigger such asreceipt and processing of an upcoming calendar entry appointmentassociated with the user 102 or receipt of an e-mail associated with theuser 102 including generating and providing an unsolicited output to anoutput device of the communication device 200 (for example, one or moreof the speaker 222 via a generated audio response and the screen 205 viaa generated text based response).

Turning now to FIG. 3, a flowchart diagram illustrates a process 300 atan electronic digital assistant computing device for automatic andselective context-based gating of an electronic digital assistantspeech-output function. While a particular order of processing steps,message receptions, and/or message transmissions is indicated in FIG. 3for exemplary purposes, timing and ordering of such steps, receptions,and transmissions may vary where appropriate without negating thepurpose and advantages of the examples set forth in detail throughoutthe remainder of this disclosure.

Process 300 begins at step 302 where the electronic computing devicedetects, via one or more sensors communicatively coupled to theelectronic computing device and associated with a user, or via anotification received at the electronic computing device, an eventassociated with a need to reduce a cognitive load on the user, so thatthe user's attention may be focused on a task or event at hand and notbe interrupted or have his or her attention diverted by unnecessary orinappropriate speech-output events generated by an electronic digitalassistant during a time period associated with the event.

The one or more sensors communicatively coupled to the electroniccomputing device may include, but is not limited to, any one or more ofthe sensors identified and described with respect to the user 102 and/orthe vehicle 132 of FIG. 1 above and associated with the user 102.Depending on the type of sensor providing sensor information to theelectronic computing device (such as a holster sensor or a biologicalbreathing rate sensor) and a contents of the sensor information, theelectronic computing device may determine that the user is or is likelyexperiencing an event associated with a need to reduce a cognitive loadon the user. Accordingly, an event associated with a need to reduce acognitive load on the user is any detectable (via sensors) or notifiable(via wired or wireless reception) context or situation in which theuser's attention should be focused on the context or situation and notan less important speech-output events, and thus some portion ofgenerated speech-output events should be gated (i.e., prevented frombeing reproduced or played back to the user) during the event. Suchevents may include, for example, a detected weapon-pull holster sensortrigger, a detected shot-spotter detector trigger, a detected man-downnotification received from another nearby user associated with the user,a received dispatch notice from a dispatcher or commander dispatchingthe user to an incident or location, or assigning the user a task, athreshold detected change in acceleration of a body of the user or avehicle associated with the user, a high-stress level detected at theuser or a nearby user associated with the user, or a detected crossingor detected imminent crossing of a border into a high-risk or high-crimegeofenced area (e.g., perhaps an area associated with a biological orradiological hazard), among many other possibilities.

In some embodiments, the sensor identifier and/or sensor informationreceived at step 302 may contain discrete information such as variousdevice states (weapon out of holster), various biological readings(breathing rates, oxygen rates, body temperature, sweat level, etc.)associated with the user, various acceleration detection parameters(e.g., from a sensor on a body of or on a vehicle associated with theuser), or a particular location of the user, and it may be left to theelectronic computing device to interpret the discrete information anddetermine that the user is or is likely (e.g., with greater than 50%, or75%, or 90% certainty) experiencing an event associated with a need toreduce a cognitive load on the user (e.g., the user has entered ahigh-risk area, is experiencing an above-threshold acceleration, or theuser biological readings are indicative of a high-stress level, etc.).

In other embodiments, the sensor identifier and/or sensor informationreceived at step 302 may convey the ultimate determination, made by thesensor itself, that the user is or is likely experiencing an eventassociated with a need to reduce a cognitive load on the user. Forexample, a biological sensor tracking breathing rates and bodytemperature may make a determination that the stress level of the useris high and that there is a need to reduce a cognitive load on the user,and may transmit sensor information including the ultimate determinationto the electronic computing device, or a location sensor may map acurrent location of the user to a known high-risk area, and may transmitsensor information including the ultimate determination to theelectronic computing device. In still other embodiments, an accelerationsensor on a body of the user (e.g., for detecting that the user may bein a physical altercation or has fallen) or on a vehicle (e.g., fordetecting acceleration indicating pursuit and/or for detecting erraticdriving indicative of a user experiencing stress) associated with theuser may detect an above-threshold acceleration and transmit sensorinformation indicating that the user is or is likely experiencing anevent associated with a need to reduce a cognitive load on the user.

In some embodiments, the sensor may be the microphone of a mobilecomputing device such as mobile computing device 133 or a portable radiosuch as portable radio 104 associated with the user 102, which maydetect a user's voice and apply audio analytics to captured voice audioto determine (at a processor included in the microphone or at aprocessor in the portable radio or mobile computing device in receipt ofthe voice audio), perhaps relative to some previously recorded baselinevoice parameter(s), that the stress level of the user is high and thatthere is a need to reduce a cognitive load on the user.

As a further example, and using the embodiment of the holster sensor, ifthe holster sensor associated with a user detects that a weapon has beenremoved from the user's holster and sends sensor information to theelectronic computing device one or both of identifying the sensor as aholster sensor and indicating that the holster sensor has detected awithdrawal of the user's weapon from the holster, the electroniccomputing device may access a mapping that maps particular sensorsand/or particular sensor information to corresponding events (and theirimpact on a need to reduce a cognitive load on the user), or suchparticular sensors and/or particular sensor information may be providedto a neural network model which may determine, based on past training,that the identity of the sensor and/or the contents of the sensorinformation are associated with a need to reduce a cognitive load on theuser. Included in the mapping may also be a level of gating to beapplied given the event implicated by the sensor identity and/or sensorinformation contents, ranging from a gating of subsequently generatedlow and/or mid-priority speech-output events generated by the electroniccomputing device to a complete gating of all speech-output eventsgenerated by the electronic computing device.

In some embodiments, a weighting may be stored at the electroniccomputing device, and perhaps stored in one of the mappings set forthabove, and applied to each mapping entry (such as each sensor identityand/or sensor information contents, notification contents, or context orsituation), or output from a corresponding neural network, such thatmultiple mapping entry weightings may have their weights added togetherand compared to a cognitive load threshold level to determine whether anevent has occurred associated with a need to reduce a cognitive load onthe user. The cognitive load threshold level may be a predeterminedlevel or levels associated with varying cognitive load levels andvarying levels of gating that may be applied across all users, or may bea user-dependent level or levels that vary based on a known healthhistory or past behavior of the user in same or similar contexts orsituations. For example, each context or situation implied from thesensor identity, sensor information contents, and/or notificationcontents may be assigned a value between 0.1 and 1 and a threshold of0.5-0.8 applied to all users or variable on a user by user basis.

The notification received at the electronic computing device may be anotification from some other electronic computing device associated withthe same user or a different user, and may include a content similar tothe sensor information (e.g., identifying some other sensor, perhapsassociated with the same or the another user, and/or other sensorinformation generated by the other sensor, that may be associated with aneed to reduce a cognitive load on the user), or may include a morespecific identity of an event associated with the need to reduce acognitive load on the user, such as a notification from dispatcherassigning the user to an incident/robbery-in-progress.

The electronic computing device may receive the notification via a localwireless network (e.g., WIFI, Bluetooth, Zigbee, etc.) and may thusdetermine that the sensor identity and/or information in thenotification may be local and thus applicable to the user of theelectronic computing device as well. Additionally or alternatively, theelectronic computing device may receive the notification via aninfrastructure wireless network (e.g., LMR, LTE, etc.) and may be ableto determine via the contents of the notification, which may includesame or similar information as set forth above and may further include alocation at which sensor information or other information included inthe notification was generated or an identity of a dispatcher,commander, or other user that sent the notification, and may determinefrom the contents of the notification that there is a need to reduce acognitive load on the user. As just one example, another user in avicinity (e.g., 500-1000 feet, or less than 1 mile) of the user of theelectronic computing device may report a shots fired or man downsituation to a dispatcher via voice, and the dispatcher may respond bysending out an all-call message notification indicating the shots firedor man down situation, and which may include a location associated withthe another user, and the electronic computing device in receipt of thenotification may determine, based on the user's determined proximity tothe another user, that the cognitive load on the user should be reducedin order to aid the user in responding to the shots fired or man downsituation. As another example, a body worn camera such as that set forthin FIG. 1 may act as a sensor and the camera itself, or the computingdevice that causes the camera to activate (such as the mobile computingdevice 133 the portable radio 104 associated with the user 102 of FIG.1), may provide a notification (indicating that the camera has been oris activated, or indicating the ultimate determination that there is aneed to reduce a cognitive load on the user) to the electronic computingdevice operating the electronic digital assistant, which may then beinterpreted as a need to reduce a cognitive load on the user. This mayalso advantageously prevent low-value electronic digital assistant voiceoutputs from being captured on the recorded body camera video.

In a similar manner to that set forth above already with respect tosensor inputs, the electronic computing device may access a mapping thatmaps particular notifications to corresponding contexts or situations(and their impact on a need to reduce a cognitive load on the user), orsuch notifications may be provided to a neural network model which maydetermine, based on past training, that the notification is associatedwith a need to reduce a cognitive load on the user. Included in themapping may similarly be a level of gating to be applied given thecontext(s) or situation(s) implicated by the notification contents, andin some embodiments, a similar weighting mechanism may be applied toeach context or situation implicated by the notifications contents suchthat multiple notifications (and/or some combination of multiple sensorsand/or multiple sensor informations) may have their assigned weightsadded together and compared to a cognitive load threshold level todetermine an ultimate impact on a (and the rise of an ‘event’ associatedwith a) need to reduce a cognitive load on the user. In still otherembodiments, the transmitter of the notification (such as the dispatcheror commander) may make the determination that the user is or is likelyexperiencing an event associated with a need to reduce a cognitive loadon the user, and may cause a notification to be transmitted to theelectronic computing device associated with the user explicitlyindicating the ultimate determination without disclosing any otherbackground event information or sensor information that caused thedispatcher or commander (or neural network model or mapping) to makesuch a determination. The electronic computing device may then act onthe received ultimate determination of the need to reduce the cognitiveload on the user in accordance with the description set forth herein.

At step 304, and responsive to detecting the event associated with theneed to reduce a cognitive load on the user, temporarily gating aportion of an electronic digital assistant speech output function toprevent reproduction to the user of one or more first speech-outputevents generated during a first period of time associated with theevent. The temporary gating is for some time period associated with theevent, which may include some portion of a larger event (e.g., executingan arrest warrant at one location with respect to a city-wide initiativein which a plurality of related arrest warrants are executed), and thetemporary gating may extend for some or all of a time period associatedwith the portion of the event, some or all of a time period associatedwith the larger event beyond just the event, and/or may extend for somepredetermined time period after a detected end of the portion of thelarger event or a detected end of the larger event, such as 1, 5, 30, or60 minutes beyond.

The portion of the electronic digital assistant speech-output functionmay include anything from one single speech-output function to allspeech-output functions associated with all types of speech outputevents. In some embodiments, certain speech-output functions may becategorized at the electronic digital assistant with a priority level,such as low-priority, default or mid-priority, and high-priority.

In the case of a police officer user associated with the electronicdigital assistant, low-priority speech-output functions may beassociated with non-incident related speech-output events, such ascalendar notifications of work meetings (e.g., a speech-outputnotification of an upcoming meeting), notifications relating to patrolor jurisdiction (e.g., a speech-output notification that the policeofficer has left an assigned patrol route or is approaching ajurisdictional boundary such as a state line), notifications ofavailable or pending non-current-incident-related tasks in an areaadjacent the police officer or associated with the police officer (e.g.,a speech-output notification of warrant checks that need to be conductedin areas nearby the current location of the police officer), receipt ofe-mails, text, messages, or phone calls from unknown callers or knownlow-priority callers (e.g., calls from known telemarketers or personalcontacts), notifications from low-priority sensors (e.g., aspeech-output notification of a number of steps taken as reported by anactivity tracking sensor) or other low-priority speech-output eventsgenerated at the electronic computing device. On the other hand,high-priority speech-output functions may be associated with incidentrelated speech-output events, such as notifications of available orpending current incident-related tasks for an incident to which thepolice officer is assigned (e.g., a speech-output notification to securea perimeter), receipt of e-mails, text, messages, or phone calls fromknown high-priority callers (e.g., calls from a commander or dispatcherassociated (or not associated) with the incident the police officer iscurrently assigned to), notifications from high-priority sensors (e.g.,a speech-output notification of a holster pull sensor or shot-spottersensor triggered at or near the police officer), an update on a locationof backup (e.g., a speech-output notification of an estimated time ofarrival (ETA) or backup to the incident), notifications of approachingrisks detected via video and/or audio sensors (e.g., a speech-outputnotification that an unidentified person has been detected approachingthe police officer from a blind spot such as from behind or from aside), notifications of high-risk geographic areas (e.g., aspeech-output notification that the police officer is about to or hasentered a high-risk or high-crime area or a geofence associated with ahazard such as a biological or radiological hazard), notifications ofhigh-risk structural events (e.g., a speech-output notification toevacuate a building or other structure), or other high-priorityspeech-output events generated at the electronic computing device. Insome instances, some combination of the aforementioned low-priority orhigh-priority speech-output events (or other types of speech-outputevents) may be instead classified as a third default, or mid-levelpriority.

In the case of a retail worker user associated with the electronicdigital assistant, low-priority speech-output functions may beassociated with non-real-time-assigned task related speech-outputevents, such as calendar notifications of work meetings (e.g., aspeech-output notification of an upcoming meeting), notificationsrelating to a customer visibility route for a retail department orfunctional area associated with the user (e.g., a speech-outputnotification that the retail worker has left an associated departmentalarea or route), notifications of available or pendingnon-real-time-assigned tasks in an area adjacent the retail worker orassociated with another retail worker (e.g., a speech-outputnotification of customer visibility routes or shelf re-stocks that needto be conducted in areas nearby the current location of the retailworker but perhaps outside of his or her currently assigned department),receipt of e-mails, text, messages, or phone calls from unknown callersor known low-priority callers (e.g., calls from known telemarketers orpersonal contacts), notifications from low-priority sensors (e.g., aspeech-output notification of a number of steps taken as reported by anactivity tracking sensor) or other low-priority speech-output eventsgenerated at the electronic computing device. On the other hand,high-priority speech-output functions may be associated withreal-time-assigned task incident related speech-output events, such asnotifications of available or pending current real-time-assigned tasksfor a retail-associated task to which the retail worker is assigned(e.g., a speech-output notification to secure a hazard marker at or nearan recent liquid spill, or a speech-output notification that a customercurrently needs assistance in an assigned or nearby department), receiptof e-mails, text, messages, or phone calls from known high-prioritycallers (e.g., calls from a shift or store manager, or pending customerservice calls associated (or not associated) with the currentreal-time-assigned tasks the retail worker is currently assigned to),notifications from high-priority sensors (e.g., a speech-outputnotification of a security sensor at a display case of high-value retailstore assets, or an activation of an exit-area high-value productdetector for the retail establishment), an update on a location oridentity of available management or store security (e.g., aspeech-output notification of an identity and/or location of currentlyactive managers and/or security personnel), notifications of approachingcustomers detected via video and/or audio sensors (e.g., a speech-outputnotification that an unidentified person, e.g., not matched to knownstore personnel, has been detected approaching the retail worker from ablind spot such as from behind or from a side), notifications ofrestricted geographic areas (e.g., a speech-output notification that theretail worker is about to or has entered a restricted area such asrelated to liquor sales or high-value merchandise, or related tomanufacturing or other high risk areas), notifications of high-riskstructural events (e.g., a speech-output notification to help customersevacuate a building or other structure due to a detected fire or otherevent), or other high-priority speech-output events generated at theelectronic computing device. In some instances, some combination of theaforementioned low-priority or high-priority speech-output events (orother types of speech-output events) may be instead classified as athird default, or mid-level priority.

In the case of an electrical energy, petro-chemical, or mining user(worker) associated with the electronic digital assistant, low-priorityspeech-output functions may be associated with non-real-time-assignedtask related speech-output events, such as calendar notifications ofwork meetings (e.g., a speech-output notification of an upcomingmeeting), notifications relating to entry and/or exit of co-workersassigned to a same work-area (e.g., a speech-output notification that aparticular co-worker has entered or left a particular work area, such asmine or gas-field, associated with the user), notifications of availableor pending non-real-time-assigned tasks in an area adjacent the workeror associated with another worker (e.g., a speech-output notification ofmining or petro-chemical related tasks in a current or nearby associatedwork-area, such as a current mine or gas-field within which the workeris located), receipt of e-mails, text, messages, or phone calls fromunknown callers or known low-priority callers (e.g., calls from knowntelemarketers or personal contacts), notifications from low-prioritysensors (e.g., a speech-output notification of a number of steps takenas reported by an activity tracking sensor) or other low-priorityspeech-output events generated at the electronic computing device. Onthe other hand, high-priority speech-output functions may be associatedwith real-time-assigned task incident related speech-output events, suchas notifications of available or pending current real-time-assignedtasks for an electrical energy, petro-chemical, or mining-associatedtask to which the worker is assigned (e.g., a speech-output notificationto secure a blast zone prior to a scheduled blast at a mine, or aspeech-output notification that an electric customer in the worker'sassigned area has lost power), receipt of e-mails, text, messages, orphone calls from known high-priority callers (e.g., calls from a shiftor area manager, or communications associated with emergency events suchas pending blasting activity), notifications from high-priority sensors(e.g., a speech-output notification of a high detected gas level or lowoxygen level), an update on a location or identity of availablemanagement (e.g., a speech-output notification of an identity and/orlocation of currently active shift or area managers), notifications ofunexpected persons in dangerous or restricted areas detected via videoand/or audio sensors (e.g., a speech-output notification that anunidentified person, e.g., not matched to known personnel, has beendetected in a nearby dangerous or restricted area), notifications ofrestricted geographic areas (e.g., a speech-output notification that theworker is about to or has entered a dangerous or restricted area such asa blasting zone or chemical leak zone), notifications of high-riskstructural events (e.g., a speech-output notification to evacuate abuilding or other structure or area due to a detected blast, fire,biological hazard, or other event), or other high-priority speech-outputevents generated at the electronic computing device. In some instances,some combination of the aforementioned low-priority or high-priorityspeech-output events (or other types of speech-output events) may beinstead classified as a third default, or mid-level priority.

Other types of speech-output events associated with other types of usersmay also be processed in accordance with the description herein as well.

In some embodiments, the gating of the electronic digital assistant atstep 304 may, by default or by explicit configuration, only gategenerated low-priority (and perhaps mid or default as well)speech-output functions of low-priority speech output events, whilecontinuing to allow generated high-priority speech-output functions torender high-priority speech output events to the user at the electroniccomputing device. In still other embodiments, by default or by explicitconfiguration, both generated low-priority (and perhaps mid or defaultas well) speech-output functions (and thus events) and generatedhigh-priority speech-output functions (and thus events) may be gated.

In still other embodiments, which priority level speech-output functionsare gated may be dependent upon the identity of the sensor and thesensor information contents or the contents of the notification receivedat step 302. For example, in the case of a weapon-pull holster sensortrigger, all priority levels of speech-output functions may be gated. Onthe other hand, in the case of a biological sensor indicating the useris agitated or stressed, only low-level priority levels of speech-outputfunctions may be gated. Other various mappings between sensors, sensorinformations, notifications, and priority levels of speech-outputfunctions to be gated are possible as well.

Once it is determined which speech-output functions at step 304 to gate,any speech-output events generated by those associated gatedspeech-output functions at the electronic computing device are queued,converted to a non-speech communication medium, converted andre-directed to another device, and/or discarded. More specifically, andduring the first period of time, gated speech-output functions at theelectronic computing device may still generate speech-output events inaccordance with its configuration and received or generated triggers,but instead of the speech-output functions causing the generatedspeech-output events to be reproduced to the user, the generated butgated speech-output events may be added to a queue (such as a first-in,first-out (FIFO) queue maintained by the electronic computing device),may be discarded (not reproduced, not redirected, and not added to aqueue), may be converted to a non-speech communication medium (e.g.,such as text, instant message, e-mail) and delivered to a samecommunication device as the speech-output event would have been providedto (including the electronic communication device) for reproduction tothe user, or converted to a non-speech communication medium andre-directed to some other communication device associated with the userdifferent from the communication device the speech-output event wouldhave been provided to for reproduction (e.g., a mobile computing device133 associated with the user 102 of FIG. 1 instead of the portable radio104). A mapping stored at the electronic computing device and/or madeaccessible to the electronic computing device may identify eachcommunications device associated with the user (and the type ofcommunication devices, such as portable radio 104, RSM 106, and/ormobile communication device 133), may identify which is a primary deviceor currently active device for contacting the user (e.g., such as theportable radio 104), and which secondary devices could be used forre-directing gated speech-output events (e.g., such as the mobilecommunication device 133). The gated speech-output event could then beconverted to a non-speech communication medium by the electroniccomputing device and caused to be reproduced at a same device that thegated speech-output event would have been reproduced by (e.g., theportable radio 104), or reproduced at a different device (e.g., themobile communication device 133).

At step 306, and after detecting, by the electronic computing device,that the event associated with the need to reduce the cognitive load onthe user has ended, the electronic computing device ends the temporarygating of the portion of the electronic digital assistant speech-outputfunction to allow reproduction of one or more second speech-outputevents generated during a second period of time after the event hasended.

The electronic computing device may detect that the event associatedwith the need to reduce the cognitive load on the user has ended in asame or similar way to how it detected that the event began at step 302,i.e., by detecting, via the one or more sensors communicatively coupledto the electronic computing device or via a second notification receivedat the electronic computing device from another computing device, thatthe event has ended.

Second sensor identifier and/or sensor information received at theelectronic computing device may indicate an end to the event detected atstep 302 (whether sensor or notification based itself) and a need toreduce the cognitive load on the user. For example, if the eventdetected at step 302 was a weapon-pull holster sensor trigger detectedvia a signal transmitted by a weapon holster sensor, detecting at step306 that the event has ended may include detecting, via the same weaponholster sensor (or some other sensor information such as a video sensoroperating video analytics), that the weapon has been returned to theweapon-holster. Additionally or alternatively, if the event detected atstep 302 was a high-stress level detected via a biological sensor deviceat the user, detecting at step 306 that the event has ended may includedetecting, via the same biological sensor device that the user's stresslevel has returned to a normalized range. As another still furtherexample, if the event detected at step 302 was an entrance to ahigh-risk or high-crime geofenced area, detecting at step 306 that theevent has ended may include detecting, via the same location sensor thatdetected the user's entrance into the geofenced area, the user's exitfrom the same high-risk or high-crime geofenced area. In otherembodiments, the sensor identifier and/or sensor information received atstep 306 may convey the ultimate determination, made by the sensoritself, that the user is or is likely no longer experiencing an eventassociated with a need to reduce a cognitive load on the user.

In some embodiments, an additional hysteresis time period may be addedto a sensor-detected end of the event in order to allow the user sometime to return his or her cognitive load to a reasonable level (e.g.,from 1-30 minutes, 1-10 minutes, or 1-5 minutes).

Additionally or alternatively, a second notification received at step306 may indicate an end to the event detected at step 302 (whethersensor or notification based itself), in a same or similar manner tothat already set forth above with respect to step 302, but insteadexplicitly indicating an end to the event (or implicitly indicating anend to the event by being mapped at the electronic computing device toan end to a corresponding event via an explicit mapping or neuralnetwork model) instead of a start to the event.

In still other examples, the electronic computing device may apply someform of timer function or end-time comparison function relative to atime parameter associated with the event such that every event detectedat step 302 has a corresponding end-time after which the eventassociated with the need to reduce the cognitive load on the user wouldbe considered ended. A same time parameter may be used for every type ofevent detected at step 302 (perhaps based on the underlying context orsituation, or particular sensor(s), particular sensor information(s),and/or particular notification(s) contents), or different timeparameters may be applied for different types of events. For example, aweapon-pull holster sensor trigger detected at step 302 may be mapped toor associated with a need to reduce a cognitive load on the user for arelatively longer time period of 30 minutes (e.g., such that the eventis considered to be ended after a time period of 30 minutes passes afterthe event, in this case the weapon-pull holster sensor trigger, isdetected at step 302), while a traffic-stop context or situationdetected at step 302 may be mapped to or associated with a need toreduce a cognitive load on the user for a relatively shorter time periodof 5, 10, or 15 minutes. Other examples are possible, and other timeparameters could be applied.

The ending of the gating of the portion of the electronic digitalassistant speech-output function means that subsequent speech-outputevents generated during a second period of time after the first periodof time and associated with the same speech-output function gated atstep 304 are instead immediately reproduced (e.g., played back via aspeaker to the user instead of being queued, converted to a non-speechcommunication medium, converted and re-directed, and/or discarded). Forexample, if only low-priority speech-output functions were gated duringstep 304, at and after step 306, any subsequently generated low-priorityspeech-output events generated by the low-priority speech-outputfunctions would be immediately reproduced instead of being queued,converted to a non-speech communication medium, converted andre-directed, and/or discarded as during the first time period. On theother hand, if all speech-output functions were gated during step 304,at and after step 306, all subsequently generated speech-output eventsgenerated by the speech-output functions may be immediately reproducedinstead of being queued, converted to a non-speech communication medium,converted and re-directed, and/or discarded. In some embodiments, evenif all speech-output events were gated at step 304, at and after step306, only some portion of all of the speech-output functions previouslygated at step 304 may be ended and allowed to immediately reproducegenerated speech-output events, such as only mid and/or high priorityspeech output events generated by mid and/or high priority speech outputfunctions. The continued gating of low and/or mid-priority speech-outputfunctions may then continue for some additional time period beyond thehigh priority speech output functions (such as single, double, or triplethe time hysteresis and/or time parameter periods set forth above).

Furthermore, and after the gating has ended for subsequently generatedspeech-output events by corresponding speech-output functions, theelectronic computing device may take further actions on anyspeech-output events generated during the first time period but notreproduced due to the gating. In the event that the electronic computingdevice was configured to discard the speech-output events generatedduring the first time period, of course no further action would berequired at or after step 306 relative to those speech-output eventsgenerated during the first time period.

On the other hand, to the extent that the speech-output events generatedduring the first time period were queued, the electronic computingdevice may cause the queued speech-output events to be reproduced (bythe corresponding, now no longer gated, speech-output functions) duringthe second time period. The queued speech-output events may bereproduced to the user by the electronic computing device in a sameorder in which they were generated, or may be re-ordered into adifferent order than that which they were generated and reproduced inthat different order. For example, and to the extent that the generatedspeech-output events queued during the first time period are associatedwith low, mid, and high priority speech-output events, the generatedspeech-output events may be re-ordered to reproduce the high priorityspeech-output events (if any) prior to the mid-priority speech outputevents (if any) and still prior to the low-priority speech output events(if any). Still further, the generated speech-output events may bereproduced in some other order, such as a contextual order such thatgenerated speech-output events determined to be associated with theevent associated with the need to reduce the cognitive load on the userdetected at step 302 are reproduced prior to generated speech-outputevents not determined to be associated with the event associated withthe need to reduce the cognitive load on the user detected at step 302.Other contextual parameters may be used as well, or instead, to re-orderthe queued speech-output events.

In some embodiments, a prompt may be displayed at a display element orvia a speaker-output element of the electronic computing devicenotifying the user that generated speech-output events from the firsttime period are queued and awaiting reproduction, and the electroniccomputing device may wait to reproduce the queued speech-output eventsin any manner already noted above until a user input gesture or actionis detected (e.g., a user manipulation of a touch-screen interface or auser voice command) associated with a user request to begin reproducingthe queued speech-output events.

In other embodiments, and where a plurality of speech-output events aregenerated during the first time period, the electronic computing deviceat step 306 may determine whether any of the queued speech-output eventsare no longer relevant and may discard some or all of them prior toreproducing them. For example, a speech-output event associated with anotification regarding a nearby incident that has since been resolved(and indicated via messaging to the electronic computing device that ithas been resolved) may be removed from the queue prior to beingreproduced. As another example, multiple related queued speech-outputnotifications may be combined (e.g., condensed) into a shorter summarydescription of the multiple related queued speech-output notificationsand the summary description reproduced to the user in place of themultiple related queued speech-output notification. For example,multiple separate speech-output notifications associated withoccurrences during a same nearby incident may be condensed into a singleshorter summary description of what occurred during the nearby incidentand reproduced to the user in the summary form.

While the above description focused on individual speech-output events,in some embodiments, same or similar speech-output functions as setforth above could be applied to reproduce group-based speech-outputevents and which may be gated in a same or similar fashion to that setforth above. For example, where an event associated with a need toreduce a cognitive load on a talkgroup of a plurality of usersoriginates at any one of the electronic computing devices that are amember of the talkgroup, or originates at some other communicationsdevice such as dispatch console 158 of FIG. 1, and a notification issent indirectly to all of the talkgroup members via an infrastructureRAN such as the infrastructure RAN 152, or sent directly to all of thetalkgroup members via a direct-mode communications session, a same orsimilar speech-output gating function may be applied as set forth aboveat step 304 (e.g., at the infrastructure controller 156 or at the cloudcompute cluster 162 via an assigned group voice channel, or atindividual member electronic computing devices in the group notified ofthe group-based speech-output event by the infrastructure controller 156or the cloud computer cluster 162 or other member of the talkgroup), andsimilar end-of-gating and speech-output reproduction functions appliedto the group at step 306 (e.g., at the infrastructure controller 156 orat the cloud compute cluster 162 via an assigned group voice channel, orat individual member electronic computing devices in the group notifiedof the end of the group-based speech-output event by the infrastructurecontroller 156 or the cloud computer cluster 162 or other member of thetalkgroup). Gating the group-based speech-output event at theinfrastructure controller 156 or at the cloud compute cluster 162 via anassigned group voice channel may include a group-based speech-outputfunction at the infrastructure controller 156 or at the cloud computecluster 162 not requesting an assigned group voice channel to playbackthe group-based speech output event to the group of member devices inaccordance with the foregoing description, or may include a group-basedspeech-output function at the infrastructure controller 156 or at thecloud compute cluster 162 not playing back the group-based speech outputevent to the group over an already-established group voice channel forthe group of member devices in accordance with the foregoingdescription.

Ending the gating of the group-based speech-output event at theinfrastructure controller 156 or at the cloud compute cluster 162 viathe assigned group voice channel may include the group-basedspeech-output function at the infrastructure controller 156 or at thecloud compute cluster 162 substantially immediately requesting anassigned group voice channel to playback the group-based speech outputevent to the group of member devices in accordance with the foregoingdescription, or may include the group-based speech-output function atthe infrastructure controller 156 or at the cloud compute cluster 162substantially immediately playing back the group-based speech outputevent to the group over the already-established group voice channel forthe group of member devices in accordance with the foregoingdescription.

Gating the group-based speech-output event at the end-user electroniccomputing devices/members of the talkgroup may include receivingparticular sensors, particular sensor information, and/or particularnotification contents from the source device (whether that is, forexample, an infrastructure controller such as infrastructure controller156 of FIG. 1, a cloud compute cluster such as cloud computer cluster162 of FIG. 1, or another talkgroup member electronic computing devicesuch as mobile communication device 133 transmitting a notification totalkgroup member portable radio 104) addressed to the talkgroup andsubsequently locally gating a speech-output function in accordance withthe foregoing description. Ending the gating of the group-basedspeech-output event at the end-user electronic computing devices/membersof the talkgroup may then include receiving other particular sensors,particular sensor information, and/or particular notification contentsfrom the source device (again, whether that is, for example, aninfrastructure controller such as infrastructure controller 156 of FIG.1, a cloud compute cluster such as cloud computer cluster 162 of FIG. 1,or another talkgroup member electronic computing device such as mobilecommunication device 133 transmitting a notification to talkgroup memberportable radio 104) addressed to the talkgroup and subsequently locallyending the gating of the speech-output function in accordance with theforegoing description.

3. Conclusion

In the foregoing specification, specific embodiments have beendescribed. However, one of ordinary skill in the art appreciates thatvarious modifications and changes may be made without departing from thescope of the invention as set forth in the claims below. Accordingly,the specification and figures are to be regarded in an illustrativerather than a restrictive sense, and all such modifications are intendedto be included within the scope of present teachings.

The benefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any element(s) thatmay cause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become morepronounced are not to be construed as a critical, required, or essentialfeatures or elements of any or all the claims. The invention is definedsolely by the appended claims including any amendments made during thependency of this application and all equivalents of those claims asissued.

Moreover in this document, relational terms such as first and second,top and bottom, and the like may be used solely to distinguish oneentity or action from another entity or action without necessarilyrequiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between suchentities or actions. The terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “has,”“having,” “includes,” “including,” “contains,” “containing” or any othervariation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, suchthat a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises, has,includes, contains a list of elements does not include only thoseelements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherentto such process, method, article, or apparatus. An element proceeded by“comprises . . . a,” “has . . . a,” “includes . . . a,” or “contains . .. a” does not, without more constraints, preclude the existence ofadditional identical elements in the process, method, article, orapparatus that comprises, has, includes, contains the element. The terms“a” and “an” are defined as one or more unless explicitly statedotherwise herein. The terms “substantially,” “essentially,”“approximately,” “about” or any other version thereof, are defined asbeing close to as understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, and inone non-limiting embodiment the term is defined to be within 10%, inanother embodiment within 5%, in another embodiment within 1% and inanother embodiment within 0.5%. The term “coupled” as used herein isdefined as connected, although not necessarily directly and notnecessarily mechanically. A device or structure that is “configured” ina certain way is configured in at least that way, but may also beconfigured in ways that are not listed.

It will be appreciated that some embodiments may be comprised of one ormore generic or specialized processors (or “processing devices”) such asmicroprocessors, digital signal processors, customized processors andfield programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and unique stored programinstructions (including both software and firmware) that control the oneor more processors to implement, in conjunction with certainnon-processor circuits, some, most, or all of the functions of themethod and/or apparatus described herein. Alternatively, some or allfunctions could be implemented by a state machine that has no storedprogram instructions, or in one or more application specific integratedcircuits (ASICs), in which each function or some combinations of certainof the functions are implemented as custom logic. Of course, acombination of the two approaches could be used.

Moreover, an embodiment may be implemented as a computer-readablestorage medium having computer readable code stored thereon forprogramming a computer (for example, comprising a processor) to performa method as described and claimed herein. Examples of suchcomputer-readable storage mediums include, but are not limited to, ahard disk, a CD-ROM, an optical storage device, a magnetic storagedevice, a ROM (Read Only Memory), a PROM (Programmable Read OnlyMemory), an EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory), an EEPROM(Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory) and a Flashmemory. Further, it is expected that one of ordinary skill,notwithstanding possibly significant effort and many design choicesmotivated by, for example, available time, current technology, andeconomic considerations, when guided by the concepts and principlesdisclosed herein will be readily capable of generating such softwareinstructions and programs and ICs with minimal experimentation.

The Abstract of the Disclosure is provided to allow the reader toquickly ascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. It issubmitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpretor limit the scope or meaning of the claims. In addition, in theforegoing Detailed Description, it may be seen that various features aregrouped together in various embodiments for the purpose of streamliningthe disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted asreflecting an intention that the claimed embodiments require morefeatures than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as thefollowing claims reflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than allfeatures of a single disclosed embodiment. Thus the following claims arehereby incorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claimstanding on its own as a separately claimed subject matter.

1. A method at an electronic computing device for automatic andselective context-based gating of an electronic digital assistantspeech-output function to reduce a cognitive load on a user, the methodcomprising: detecting, by an electronic computing device associated witha user and via sensor content information from one or more sensorscommunicatively coupled to the electronic computing device or vianotification dispatch content information in a dispatch notificationreceived at the electronic computing device from another computingdevice or via a body worn camera activation notification received at theelectronic computing device from the body worn camera, that the user isor is likely currently experiencing an event associated with a need toreduce a cognitive load on the user; responsive to detecting the event,temporarily gating, by the electronic computing device, a portion of anelectronic digital assistant speech-output function to preventreproduction to the user of one or more non-incident-relatedspeech-output events generated during a first period of time associatedwith the event while allowing reproduction to the user of one or moreincident-related speech-output events generated during the first periodof time associated with the event; and subsequently, and afterdetecting, by the electronic computing device associated with the userthat the event has ended, ending, by the electronic computing device,the temporary gating of the portion of the electronic digital assistantspeech-output function to allow reproduction of one or morenon-incident-related speech-output events generated during a secondperiod of time after the event has ended; wherein the incident-relatedspeech-output events include one or more selected from an e-mailreception speech-output event for a received e-mail from a sourceassociated with the event, a text message reception speech-output eventfor a received text message from a source associated with the event, aphone call reception speech-output event for a received phone call froma source associated with the event, a detected shots fired speech-outputevent, a detected available related task speech-output event for adetected task related to the event, a detected officer downspeech-output event, a detected person approaching the user from one ormore visual blind spots associated with the user speech-output event, adetected evacuate structure speech-output event, a detected holsterpull-sensor speech-output event, a detected geofence crossingspeech-output event associated with a detection of the user crossinginto a crime-related geofenced area or a biological hazard geofencedarea or a radiological area geofenced area or a restricted entrygeofenced area, and a detected backup arrived on scene speech-outputevent; and wherein the non-incident-related speech-output events includeone or more selected from a calendar notification speech-output event, apatrol route or jurisdictional boundary speech-output event, a detectedavailable unrelated task speech-output event for a task unrelated to theevent, an e-mail reception speech-output event for a received e-mailfrom an unknown source or source not associated with the event, a textmessage reception speech-output event for a received text message froman unknown source or source not associated with the event, and a phonecall reception speech-output event for a received phone call from anunknown source or source not associated with the event.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: during the first period of time, queuingthe one or more generated non-incident-related speech-output events and,after detecting that the event has ended, playing back, by theelectronic computing device, at least one of the queued one or moregenerated non-incident-related speech-output events.
 3. (canceled) 4.The method of claim 2, wherein a prompt is displayed at a displayelement of one of a mobile and a portable computing device associatedwith the user indicating that the queued one or more generatednon-incident-related speech-output events are now available forreproduction, and responsive to detecting a user input operationassociated with playing back the queued one or more generatednon-incident-related speech-output events, playing back the queued oneor more generated non-incident-related speech-output events at the oneof the mobile and portable computing device.
 5. The method of claim 2,wherein a plurality of generated non-incident-related speech-outputevents are generated and queued during the first period of time, themethod further comprising, after detecting that the event has ended,playing back, by the electronic computing device, the queued pluralityof generated non-incident-related speech-output events in a priorityorder that is different from an order in which they were generated. 6.The method of claim 2, wherein a plurality of generatednon-incident-related speech-output events are at least initially queuedand not reproduced during the first period, and the method furthercomprising, after detecting that the event has ended, removing from thequeue or refraining from playing back, at least one of the plurality ofgenerated non-incident-related speech-output events determined to beduplicative or no longer relevant.
 7. The method of claim 2, wherein aplurality of generated non-incident-related speech-output events are atleast initially queued and not reproduced during the first period, andthe method further comprising, after detecting that the event has ended,condensing the plurality of generated non-incident-related speech-outputevents into a summary description of the plurality of generatednon-incident-related speech-output events and playing back, by theelectronic computing device, the summary description of the plurality ofgenerated non-incident-related speech-output events.
 8. (canceled) 9.(canceled)
 10. (canceled)
 11. (canceled)
 12. (canceled)
 13. (canceled)14. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting the event associated withthe need to reduce the cognitive load on the user comprises detecting,via the sensor content information from the one or more sensorscommunicatively coupled to the electronic computing device, locationinformation indicating that the user has entered a geographic areaassociated with a need to reduce a cognitive load on the user.
 15. Themethod of claim 1, wherein detecting the event associated with the needto reduce the cognitive load on the user comprises detecting, via thesensor content information from the one or more sensors communicativelycoupled to the electronic computing device, acceleration informationindicating an acceleration of one of the user and a vehicle associatedwith the user beyond a threshold minimum level.
 16. (canceled) 17.(canceled)
 18. (canceled)
 19. (canceled)
 20. An electronic computingdevice associated with a user implementing an electronic digitalassistant for selective context-based gating of a speech-output functionduring detected high cognitive load events, the electronic computingdevice comprising: a memory storing non-transitory computer-readableinstructions; a transceiver; and one or more processors configured to,in response to executing the non-transitory computer-readableinstructions, perform a first set of functions comprising: detect, viasensor content information from one or more sensors communicativelycoupled to the electronic computing device or via notification dispatchcontent information in a dispatch notification received at theelectronic computing device from another computing device via thetransceiver or via a body worn camera activation notification receivedat the electronic computing device from the body worn camera via thetransceiver, that the user is or is likely currently experiencing anevent associated with a need to reduce a cognitive load on the user;responsive to detecting the event, temporarily gate a portion of anelectronic digital assistant speech-output function to preventreproduction to the user of one or more non-incident-relatedspeech-output events generated during a first period of time associatedwith the event while allowing reproduction to the user of one or moreincident-related speech-output events generated during the first periodof time associated with the event; and subsequently, and after detectingthat the event has ended, end the temporary gating of the portion of theelectronic digital assistant speech-output function to allowreproduction of one or more non-incident-related speech-output eventsgenerated during a second period of time after the event has ended;wherein the incident-related speech-output events include one or moreselected from an e-mail reception speech-output event for a receivede-mail from a source associated with the event, a text message receptionspeech-output event for a received text message from a source associatedwith the event, a phone call reception speech-output event for areceived phone call from a source associated with the event, a detectedshots fired speech-output event, a detected available related taskspeech-output event for a detected task related to the event, a detectedofficer down speech-output event, a detected person approaching the userfrom one or more visual blind spots associated with the userspeech-output event, a detected evacuate structure speech-output event,a detected holster pull-sensor speech-output event, a detected geofencecrossing speech-output event associated with a detection of the usercrossing into a crime-related geofenced area or a biological hazardgeofenced area or a radiological area geofenced area or a restrictedentry geofenced area, and a detected backup arrived on scenespeech-output event; and, wherein the non-incident-related speech-outputevents include one or more selected from a calendar notificationspeech-output event, a patrol route or jurisdictional boundaryspeech-output event, a detected available unrelated task speech-outputevent for a task unrelated to the event, an e-mail receptionspeech-output event for a received e-mail from an unknown source orsource not associated with the event, a text message receptionspeech-output event for a received text message from an unknown sourceor source not associated with the event, and a phone call receptionspeech-output event for a received phone call from an unknown source orsource not associated with the event.
 21. The method of claim 1, whereinthe detecting that the user is or is likely currently experiencing anevent associated with the need to reduce the cognitive load on the usercomprises detecting, by the electronic computing device associated withthe user and via notification dispatch content information in thedispatch notification received at the electronic computing device fromanother computing device, that the user has been dispatched by adispatcher to respond to the event.
 22. The method of claim 1, whereinthe detecting that the user is or is likely currently experiencing anevent associated with the need to reduce the cognitive load on the usercomprises detecting, by the electronic computing device associated withthe user and via the body worn camera activation notification receivedat the electronic computing device from the body worn camera, that thebody warn camera has been activated.
 23. The method of claim 1, wherein:the incident-related speech-output events include the e-mail receptionspeech-output event for the received e-mail from the source associatedwith the event, the text message reception speech-output event for thereceived text message from the source associated with the event, and thephone call reception speech-output event for the received phone callfrom the source associated with the event; and the non-incident-relatedspeech-output events include the e-mail reception speech-output eventfor the received e-mail from the unknown source or source not associatedwith the event, the text message reception speech-output event for thereceived text message from the unknown source or source not associatedwith the event, and the phone call reception speech-output event for thereceived phone call from the unknown source or source not associatedwith the event.
 24. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending,by the electronic computing device, a notification to other electronicdevices that are a member of a same talkgroup as the electroniccomputing device to apply a same temporary gating of the portion of thespeech-output function.
 25. The method of claim 1, wherein: theincident-related speech-output events include one or more selected froma detected shots fired speech-output event, a detected available relatedtask speech-output event for a detected task related to the event, adetected officer down speech-output event, a detected person approachingthe user from one or more visual blind spots associated with the userspeech-output event, a detected evacuate structure speech-output event,a detected holster pull-sensor speech-output event, a detected geofencecrossing speech-output event associated with a detection of the usercrossing into a crime-related geofenced area, and a detected backuparrived on scene speech-output event; and the non-incident-relatedspeech-output events include one or more selected from a calendarnotification speech-output event, a patrol route or jurisdictionalboundary speech-output event, and a detected available unrelated taskspeech-output event for a task unrelated to the event.
 26. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: detecting a plurality of (i) one or moresensor content information from the one or more sensors communicativelycoupled to the electronic computing device or (ii) one or more dispatchor body warn camera activation notifications received at the electroniccomputing device from another computing device; for each sensor contentinformation and for each dispatch or body warn camera activationnotification, accessing, by the electronic computing device, a mappingor neural network associating each respective sensor content informationor dispatch or body warn camera activation notification with a cognitiveload impact weighing; adding together each cognitive load impactweighting from the mapping for each sensor content information and foreach dispatch or body warn camera activation notification contentinformation to identify a total cognitive load impact; comparing thetotal cognitive load impact to a stored cognitive load threshold level;and only when the total cognitive load impact exceeds the storedcognitive load threshold level, temporarily gating, by the electroniccomputing device, the portion of the electronic digital assistantspeech-output function to prevent reproduction to the user of one ormore non-incident-related speech-output events generated during thefirst period of time associated with the event.